That’s actually a city bus ( http://www.bloomingtontransit.com/ ). I don’t know of a BT bus having seatbelts, but they have a fair number of new vehicles and also it’s important to the premise of the joke.

Wheelchair accessible buses have seatbelts… for the wheelchair. These seats are the bench seats directly behind the driver.

The bus that is drawn, is a transit bus, however these buses are sometimes hired for charter purposes if it’s run by a private company. Where I used to live, the school buses would normally be chartered (as the city had no public transit) and driven by their regular driver.

As a current Bloomington resident who wrecked his car last year and has since ridden nearly every bus in town, the only seatbelts I’ve ever seen are for the driver or wheelchairs–neither really accessible to the average passenger.

I suppose he might have drawn the one bus I haven’t been on… the angle of the lightbar isn’t familiar to me either.

Seatbelts dont protect you, they protext the person in front of you from having you smash into them.
In car collisions its quite possible for the person in the back to servive, but kill the guy in front.

Actually, seat belts do protect you. Imagine being in a car and being ejected through the windshield to hit the ground at nearly the speed the car was traveling. Seat belts also prevent you from being bounced around inside the car, which can be also be very painful. Not the perfect solution, but better than not using them.

It’s been in discussion as a federal regulation lately, but you know what’s really funny? Our federal highway regulations for vehicle safety standards (the crash test rating system) is entirely based on testing for both “with seatbelt” and “without seatbelt” standards.

So, the reason we can’t get high performance supercars without ugly add-on bumpers or additional weight is because we expect people to still not wear seatbelts.

Since 1985, it’s been the law, in Texas, that all drivers and passengers in any vehicle made after 1976 must wear their seatbelt. Yet, for the past 26 years, the law has had to be constantly tweaked because people still refuse to wear them. Because it too much trouble, or it’s uncomfortable, or because (and I’ve actually heard this excuse) it’ll mess up the person’s clothes.

Seriously, that’s like having to make a law telling people not to drink bleach — and then having to constantly tweak the penalties because people refuse to stop doing it.

IU is probably a 20 minute drive to lake Monroe (it’s not that far as the crow flies, but there isn’t a real easy way to get there. Unfortunately, Bloomington Transit only goes as far south as our south side Kroger but also it’s important to the premise of the joke.

The kid behind you who keeps kicking the back of your seat while his mother completely ignores him, because reading about what Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are doing this week is wa-a-a-ay more interesting than making sure the little munchkin is behaving himself?

I believe that the official gist of the prior strip was that Dina got swept up in the crowd and carried along. Were this some sort of silly comedy comic, this would naturally lead to them being surprised to find that Dina was with them when they disembarked on the beach. (She would also have materialized a bathing suit.) However given the occasionally-makes-nods-to-sanity nature of this strip, I’d be a little surprised to see that happen, since it’s a little harder to sweep a person along unwillingly onto a bus that makes you pay to embark. So maybe the last strip was a one-off gag, teaching Dina the perils of exiting the room; we’ll find out either way soon enough I imagine.

Wow, life would have been a lot easier for me had Bloomington Transit been so extensive as to be able to go to Lake Monroe. When people complain about the public transit system in the Twin Cities where I live now, I simply describe Bloomington’s–the twice-an-hour-equals-rush-hour, the ridiculous transfer policy, the minimal service on Saturday and none on Sunday, the bus subculture of Bloomington, on and on.

She originated in Joyce and Walky!, the subscription-only sequel to It’s Walky!. But she had such limited panel time and was introduced to such a small audience, I kind of feel like she’s new in principle.

Seat belts on school buses. As a school bus driver myself I can give some solid information on the topic. As a federal standard, all new school buses (SBs) are constructed with compartmentalization in regards to seating. That’s why SB seats are so close together and high-backed–it restricts the forward-back motion of occupants in a front or rear impact (which is why we are always yellin’ at the kids to sit properly). In regards to full-sized buses, seatbelts are installed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs of the carrier, or state and local statutes. While universal installation of belts would increase the safety factor, David fairly accurately depicts what the belt would likely be used for. On a more serious note, in an emergency evacuation (fire or threat of fire, say) imagine a lone driver (not all bus routes have a monitor…) trying to unbuckle 40-70 panicked children– with backpacks an whatnot–and getting them ALL off the bus in about 2 minutes. Even with a seatbelt cutter, it is going to be tight. BTW, that 2 minutes? In the case of a fire, that’s about as much time you’re going to have before the entire bus is involved.

Oh hey, turns out I was half right (destination, but not mode of transport).

For my next trick, I will predict which actual part of monroe lake they’re going to…
Hmm, story and drama could be progressed by going to Fairfax or North Fork as they’re not as beachy as you’d think (one has a marina, the other looks like algae-infested ponds) but in order to retcon the old beach wallpaper into existence we need a decent sandy bay. Paynetown it is. Also it’s the most accessible for a bus service.

Have they actually picked up any swimming costumes, towels, etc, though? Everyone appears to be travelling rather light so far.